r desk, it would be there still. This is just another example of
your careless, unmethodical habits. You have put the book in some
unlikely, out-of-the-way corner, and have forgotten all about it. I
feared some _contretemps_ of the kind, and was much relieved when you
told me that all was ready. I am very much disappointed and annoyed!"

"Miss Drake, it _was_ there! I'm absolutely positive. I never was
surer of anything in my life than that I left it there last night, and
saw it again this morning."

Miss Drake shrugged her shoulders expressively.

"Extravagant assertions do not prove anything, Etheldreda. In a case of
this sort I judge by previous experience. I have repeatedly warned you
about your careless habits, but apparently without success. In this
case you had a responsibility to fulfil for others as well as yourself,
which should have made you doubly careful. You had better continue your
search in the other rooms."

"It is no good, Miss Drake. The book _was_ in the desk."

Dreda kept her place stolidly, and there was a settled conviction upon
her face which Miss Drake was quick to note. She watched the girl in
silence for several moments, her brow knitted in thought, then suddenly
her expression softened and her voice regained its habitual kindly tone.

"If you put it there, my dear child, it must be there still. Perhaps it
is! I know your sketchy fashion of looking. See! I will come and help
you to look again. Perhaps we shall find the book hidden away in a
corner where you have never thought of looking!"

Dreda thought ruefully of the scattering of her treasures which had
twice over left the desk bare and empty, but it seemed easier to allow
Miss Drake to see for herself than to protest any further; so she meekly
opened the door and followed the governess down the passage. From above
could be heard the voices of the girls ascending to dress for the
evening; doors opened and shut, and echoes of suppressed laughter
floated to the ear. Everybody, Dreda reflected darkly--everybody was
happy but herself! She led the way to her desk and opened the lid,
revealing the confused mass of books and papers. She was miserably
resigned to receiving yet another lecture on untidiness, but The Duck
smiled in a forbearing fashion, and said:

"You _have_ been making hay of your possessions! No wonder you could
not find what you wanted. Now what was this book like? You said that
the papers were bou